12 Proven Steps to Sell More Online

Technology makes life easier for consumers and transforms the way sales and negotiations are done — not just when we talk about e-commerce.

Every day new marketing and online sales tools appear, also helping brands to obtain better results.

Those who do not adapt to this new reality can end up being left behind and losing important business opportunities.

Do you want to know how to sell more online , regardless of your company's sector?

Then check out this post with lots of information and 12 more proven tips for this.

4 reasons to sell online

In addition to following the market consumption trend, investing in online advertising and sales, whether of products or services, has many other advantages.

Audience segmentation

By using online sales channels, you can offer your audience a shopping experience that meets their expectations.

In addition, attracting the public can be done in a segmented way, through investments and advertisements aimed at that profile that is more likely to become a consumer of your brand.

Possibility of customization

Another great advantage of selling online that meets what the consumer expects is personalization.

By offering personalized experiences designed for the real needs they have, the brand will be aligned with the expectations, desires and intentions of the visitors.

To achieve this, it is worth the investment and personalization according to online behavior, pages visited, channels of origin of each visitor and exploring tools that approach each consumer in a personalized way, according to their browsing context.

Conversion optimization

With online tools and channels, the chances of optimizing conversion are also greater, at all stages of the sales funnel.

After all, several actions and improvements can be made.

We'll talk more about them later in this content.

Measurable metrics

Last, but not least, is the fact that online sales allow for a more accurate measurement of data and metrics.

It becomes simpler to follow the numbers and generate reports for decision-making based on data, as you will know exactly how much you invested in each action, material and tool, in addition to knowing the details of the return on investment of each of them.

Who can sell online?

Anyone who thinks that online sales favor only brands that work with offering products through e-commerce is wrong.

Digital platforms can and should also be explored by B2B companies and service providers.

B2B and B2C companies

A B2C (Business to Consumer) company makes sales directly to the final consumer, without intermediaries.

If the brand sells to another company, it fits into the B2B (Business to Business) format.

These two types of companies can provide and promote online sales channels, even with different dynamics.

Self-employed professionals (MEI)

Even smaller companies, such as open ones such as MEI (Individual Micro Entrepreneur) can use online platforms as a way to sell more on the internet.

Professionals such as realtors, lawyers and other self-employed professionals find an opportunity to attract a qualified audience through digital channels.

How to sell online in Brazil?

In the case of e-commerces, these can be exploited to sell products and provide services such as marketplace operations.

This is because, according to current Brazilian law, it is necessary to comply with certain tax and legal criteria.

But there are many other ways to use online sales channels besides e-commerce.

Capturing leads through digital tools and channels is a way to start approaching consumers who do not necessarily need to close a purchase or contract just through an e-commerce.

What are the phases of an online sale and how to optimize them?

To take advantage of the full potential of online sales channels, it is necessary to understand that there are thousands of consumers who are there, but not all of them are ready for the moment of purchase or contracting.

Therefore, in the digital strategy, the sales funnel or the shopping journey is taken into account, as it helps the brand to speak to the consumer with the right language, at the right time.

The focus is the user's need at the stage he is in.

Learn more about each of the phases here:

Visitors

When a user has a first contact with your brand, in any online channel, he is considered a visitor .

In the first part of the journey, the consumer is not yet thinking about a purchase.

He begins to identify doubts and the company puts itself in the place of who will help him to discover what the problem is that is generating these questions.

Here, the focus is on visibility, reach and impression.

It's time to capture the attention of visitors and provide educational content and campaigns by reach and frequency.

Leads

From the moment your company captures contact data from this visitor, he becomes a lead .

This advance in the funnel is significant, as your brand can now communicate directly with this consumer, understanding their needs and consumption profile.

With the understanding and recognition of the problem, the consumer also begins to look for the solution of doubts about more specific topics (after all, now they know what to look for) and the brand can begin to generate a need for a solution.

The brand is not yet placed at the center of attention and the focus should be on helping and solving doubts, with more in-depth and specific content about the problems.

Qualified leads

Not all of these visitor-to-lead conversions represent people with a real interest in closing a purchase or contract.

Some people may not be looking for the solution you offer.

Others may just be curious and will still do a lot of research before deciding.

Others may still be interested, but not have the purchasing power to close the deal.

Many times a lead will not progress through the sales funnel.

And so many times the lead is still not ready to buy and needs to go through the process we call, in Inbound Marketing, nutrition and qualification.

The qualified lead is then that lead that has already gone through this process and is closer to the moment of purchase.

Opportunities

Qualified leads that continue to advance through the sales funnel become leads .

These consumers must be worked by the brand's commercial, as they are more likely to become customers.

Here, persuasion takes place through the solution and not yet through the brand.

First, the consumer decides to buy an office chair, as he has realized that the lack of a quality product is causing things pain.

Only after this earlier decision does he start looking for branding options.

Which brings us to the next phase.

Customers

We finally arrive at the conversion of the consumer into a customer of your brand, when he closes a purchase or contract.

The choice by brand is here.

In addition to conversion-oriented ads, there are remarketing strategies and nurturing flows that guide the lead through the purchase journey.

In many cases the conversion can also be done through online platforms, which makes everything simpler and more comfortable for the consumer.

12 Proven Steps to Sell More Online

Let's get to what matters most?

We have now gathered 12 steps to sell more online, taking advantage of all that online tools have to offer:

1. Invest time to create a sales plan

The first step to having better sales results is investing time and knowledge in planning and the first step in any planning is the definition of objectives.

You need to understand what you want to achieve in order to determine the resources you will have to take the next steps.

If you don't clearly know what your sales goals are, you also won't know what investments, efforts, and metrics will help you track whether you're getting closer to achieving them.

So, sit down with your sales team and define the planning for the coming months in detail.

Always review to understand if what was predicted is being fulfilled and, of course, if it is evolving as expected.

2. Know your customer's profile

It is necessary to know his profile, understand why he consumes with your company and what are the fears before he closes a purchase or contract.

Take into account qualitative and quantitative aspects and research to make the analysis.

Knowing the customer will direct where to put efforts and where to stop investing.

Every business has best and worst customer profiles and you need to stop attracting bad customers now.

To do this, explore a target audience, persona and ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) definition tool.

You can check out a complete content on the topic here: “ ICP, Persona and Target Audience: Don't Confuse These 3 Concepts ”.

3. Have a clear value proposition

A value proposition is a promise to be delivered by a brand, it is what your company has to offer through products and services and it is also the main reason why the consumer should buy from you.

When he is faced with a solution, it is this value proposition that stands out and that reinforces that it is the best option for him.

The value proposition must be clear, strong and customer-focused.

This is how your business marketing will stand out from the competition, especially if your brand is just starting out and is still poorly known.

4. Add social proof to your pages and posts

Social proof is a persuasion tool when it comes to convincing a potential customer to actually make a purchase or contract with your company.

Thus, we can say that social proof is based on the idea of ​​social influence.

With a testimonial or validation from someone who already knows the brand and who has benefited from the solution offered, credibility increases, as well as decision making is boosted.

You can include social proof in your channels and materials in a variety of ways.

5. Create custom approaches

We have already commented on how effective personalization is in the online environment.

Just to cite an example, personalized CTAs perform and perform up to 202% better than CTAs that don't have personalization.

And personalization can go much further: it is possible to work on customizing campaigns, pages and approaches according to the origin and interest of each visitor.

Here at Leadster , for example, we offer chatbots and virtual assistants tools, which are the best personalization alternative to static forms and are growing because they guarantee better conversion rates and a more interactive and dynamic experience.

These tools approach each consumer in a personalized way, according to their browsing context, thus increasing their engagement, improving the customer experience and increasing the chances of conversion and, consequently, sales.

6. Invest in good service to retain your customers

A standardized, quality and efficient service delights customers and is also part of the consumer experience.

Therefore, the agility of service and the accuracy of the information are fundamental for consumers with doubts who want to buy.

And after-sales service also needs to be thought of to ensure that customers will come back to buy from your brand.

7. Optimize websites and pages for conversion

CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization is the strategy for optimizing the conversion rate, which proposes to use the existing structure, increasing and adjusting it to improve conversion results and, consequently, sales.

It can be applied to websites and pages, in conjunction with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques and strategies to improve conversion rates at all stages of the sales funnel.

8. Have strategies for all stages of the funnel

The consumer enters the funnel as a visitor and is nurtured and worked on until he goes through different stages, becoming a lead, then a qualified lead until, finally, he becomes a customer of your company or brand.

To cover all online opportunities, it is necessary to include all stages of the sales funnel in the planning: attraction, conversion, relationship and sale.

If you want to deepen your knowledge on this topic, we recommend reading two other contents:

• Pirate Funnel: The 5 Metrics Used by High Growth Companies
• Is Your Marketing Funnel “Congested”? Discover the Most Common Problems

9. Keep more than one sales channel

Combining sales channels is what will bring the best results in the current scenario, with so many tools, possibilities and new consumer trends.

So understand which channels make sense for your brand and your audience.

The options are diverse: own website, paid media, organic traffic by phone, marketplace, social networks, email, WhatsApp , Google Shopping, Apps, etc.

Defining and combining the best sales channels is fundamental, but it is also essential to monitor the results in each one of them, so that the brand can make the investment decision based on data.

10. Be present in the places where your audience is

In addition to sales channels, reinforce your brand's digital presence in the vehicles and tools used by your audience.

Knowing his habits well (a step you will have already completed before) you will be able to understand if it is interesting to invest in content for social media, tv, videos, news portals, alternative channels and influencers.

11. Have well-defined and organized processes

Any sales process requires processes and organization and this is no different when programming how to sell more on the internet.

Understand, together with your team, the best dynamics, tools and processes, especially if you intend to offer the complete consumer journey online, including the purchase or contracting transaction.

12. Keep an eye on important metrics

Remember what we talked about in the first step of determining goals and creating a metric-based plan?

Because they need to be monitored to ensure the success of the planning.

Give preference to the choice of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), metrics focused on results in generating sales and resources for companies.

We recommend that you choose a few from the 8 Sales and Marketing KPIs Leaders Want to See on their Dashboard.

Conclusion

Did you like our tips on how to sell more online?

Check out other content here on the blog and on the website, with various information and research that will help your brand increase conversion and sales results!